■ Sports
Chen promotes games
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said yesterday that Taiwan has rich experience in hosting international games and urged a world sports leader to support Taiwan's bid to host the World University Games. The president made the remarks when he received George Killian, president of the International University Sports Federation, (FISU) at the Presidential Office. Chen described the World University Games as "the cradle of the Olympic Games," adding that since 1998 Taiwan has hosted several individual events authorized by the FISU such as archery, taekwondo, golf and baseball.
■ Diplomacy
Chen decorates allies
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) decorated Central American Parliament President Mario Facusse Handal yesterday as a token of gratitude for his efforts to promote Taiwan-Central America relations and assist with Taiwan's participation in the international community. On being conferred the Order of Brilliant Star with Special Grand Cordon, Facusse said the order is not only a recognition for himself but also a representation of the friendship between Taiwan and its allies in Central America. Facusse said the countries of Central America firmly support Taiwan's bids to join international organizations, including the UN and WHO, to reciprocate Taiwan's years of aid to help the development of Central American nations.
■ Diplomacy
China's police under scrutiny
Officials will keep a close watch on China's plan to send riot police on a UN peacekeeping mission to Taiwan's diplomatic ally Haiti, foreign ministry spokesman Michel Lu (呂慶隆) said yesterday. Beijing will send 125 police to the war-torn Caribbean state later this month, marking its first-ever dispatch of riot police abroad. "China has attempted in different ways to sabotage Taiwan's diplomatic relations. We will monitor closely its police deployment in Haiti," Lu said. Ties with Haiti were firm, with various joint projects continuing, Lu said.
■ Society
First lady to promote cakes
President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) wife, Wu Shu-chen (吳淑珍), will promote moon cakes made by handicapped citizens with the approach of the Mid-Autumn Festival, sources from the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) said yesterday. The wheelchair-bound first lady, to be accompanied by Minister of the Interior Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全), is scheduled to attend a gala tomorrow devoted to showcasing the moon cakes that will be made by mentally and physically challenged people from around the country, a ministry official said.
■ Defense
Ministry lauds arms deal
The Ministry of National Defense (MND) yesterday released a position paper to solicit public support for its massive arms purchase from the US. The position paper, titled "Love Taiwan and Protect our Homeland, " noted that the NT$610.8 billion (US$18.23 billion) arms purchase will be paid over the next 15 years, representing a sum of about NT$40 billion per year. If the nation adopts a technology transfer agreement with the US to replace the original plan of having Taiwan shipbuilding companies build some of the eight submarines that are part of the deal, then NT$100 billion will be cut from the total budget, bringing the annual cost down to about NT$33 billion per year.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching